Haida Gwaii-based Syrian family wounded by war needs help travelling to Vancouver for surgeries

Douaa, her five brothers and sisters, and her parents are a long way from the conflict in Syria--they were resettled in Queen Charlotte City in Haida Gwaii in August 2016. Douaa lost one leg, when a mortar rocket exploded on the balcony of her grandparents apartment in Daraa, at the beginning of the civil war in Syria.Operation Refugees Haida Gwaii / PNG

A butterfly flaps its wings and causes a hurricane in China — it’s called the Butterfly Effect. A child swings rung to rung on the monkey bars in a remote Canadian community. She flaps her wings. The effect — a sandstorm that sifts and settles, a ceasefire in a distant land — is still unknown. But this particular child, whose war wounds have now begun to heal, has a direct effect on those that have helped her, and perhaps also on others she has not yet met.

The girl, five-year-old Douaa Sirhan, lost her leg in a traumatic amputation when a mortar rocket exploded on her grandmother’s balcony in Daraa, Syria. In August, Douaa arrived in the remote Canadian archipelago Haida Gwaii with her five brothers and sisters and parents Hasan and Lama Sirhan. They came as refugees from Syria, sponsored by a local group of five enthusiastic families.

Douaa, her five brothers and sisters, and her parents are a long way from the conflict in Syria–they were resettled in Queen Charlotte City in Haida Gwaii in August 2016.Operation Refugees Haida Gwaii /
PNG

How the family felt when they landed in an alien landscape, displaced from everything they had ever known, surrounded by old-growth forest and the sea, a strange language and the sound of birdsong, can be summed up by something Douaa’s father Hasan shared through an interpreter. “He said I know I am in paradise,” said Operation Refugee Haida Gwaii committee member Beng Favreau.

And Douaa? “She is a really high spirited girl,” said Favreau. “She loves the park and the monkey bars. She can grab the rungs and swing herself across. Nothing fazes her.”

But the medical issues Douaa and her family face are more than what their sponsor families expected. Douaa has had to travel to Vancouver twice for treatment at B.C. Children’s hospital for amputation revision surgery on her leg, which had become infected. Her sister, 7-year-old Shahid, suffered shrapnel wounds and will also need surgery.

Hasan, a former truck and taxi driver, also needs surgery to deal with a hernia and the lingering effects of torture. (He was picked up at the Jordanian border, hung from a wall in handcuffs and released without charges after 30 days before the family reached the relative safety of a UN refugee camp in Jordan.)

Although the family has medical coverage through the Interim Federal Health Program, and Hope Air has provided flights for Douaa and her father, costs include transportation to and from airports, Arabic translators, additional food and incidentals in addition to costs anticipated for the dental care.

Favreau said the group is committed to supporting the family emotionally and financially for the first year as set out by the federal government’s G5 program. They were aware of Douaa’s injuries when they were matched with the Sirhan family through the UN refugee agency, but they didn’t know she would require more surgeries — something that is not uncommon with traumatic amputations. So the group has set up a fund to raise the additional money to cover these costs.

It’s unusual for a refugee family with complex medical needs to be settled in a remote community, according to Andrea Palmer, regional manager of public affairs for Northern Health. Palmer said she was not aware of any other privately-sponsored refugee families with special medical needs in northern B.C.

“It definitely poses a challenge, but it’s not a negative,” said Favreau. in a phone interview from Queen Charlotte City. Favreau said the children are not afraid to try anything new. “The children are full of smiles, very friendly,” she said. “They just want to be outside, they want to go to the park all the time.”

For Favreau, at least, the Butterfly Effect is real. When she speaks of watching Douaa swing blithely from the monkey bars, her voice conveys unmistakable sense of awe. “They have been a wonderful addition to our community. They have really been a gift.”

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